Forevermore
by XrhiaX
Summary: Set five years post-Nevermore. The mutant kids have been surviving in the safe caves for five years, but now, with a major game-changer throwing Max and Fang for a loop, the two have been forced to abandon the others to find help, and Angel's suddenly the leader, just when the job includes finding Max, controlling Dylan and protecting the others. Fax.


1

Angel had always said she should be leader of the flock. She had always believed it, and always wanted it to happen, for as long as she could remember. But now everyone was looking at _her, _and telling her the things she'd always been telling Max.

_You have to lead us, the survivors. You're the only one who can._

It was crazy - insane, actually. Not insane like the white-coats, but still pretty up there. Angel didn't think she could imagine anything more confusing than forty-odd mutant kids, and Ella - plus Jeb, Dr. Martinez and the other grown-ups who had survived the end of the world - all looking at you to lead them.

Jeb had long healed since Max's fierce attack, which had left him with several cracked ribs, but he looked hurt all the same in this moment. "Angel, sweetheart," he began, and Angel wanted so bad to hit him for calling her that, "… Explain again where Max went."

This was, what, the fourth time he had asked her to explain it again?

And it was relatively simple, anyway. Angel had taken Dylan with her to go catch fish for the kids in the cave - because nobody knew what would happen if they were safe in the outside air yet - while Max and Fang had gone to get water and find fruit.

In hindsight, Angel had thought something might be up between them, but she had thought little of it. They weren't kids anymore, and they were together. She didn't want to listen in on their thoughts and hear them thinking about the things they did in the privacy of their tree houses, did she?

It had been five years since the end of the world as they'd known it. They were trundling on, living on fruits, nuts, fish and mutated animals around the safe cave. The four of them, Max, Fang, Dylan and Angel, had been the sole providers for nearly sixty people for that time.

Anyway, she and Dylan had gone to get the fish, and when they'd come back to the meeting place … Max and Fang had just _disappeared. _It was so strange.

There was no note, which could have meant it wasn't planned, but if it _was _planned, where had they gone? Where _could _they go? It wasn't exactly like there were Hilton Hotels floating around the world for them to stop into. No. Max and Fang had most definitely been taken by other survivors - probably other mutants.

It was the first tribe versus tribe attack since the end of society.

If that was the case, then there were two ways it could have gone. 1) Max could try to unite all the mutant tribes into one big clan of mutants, on the agreement that she could protect, lead and take care of them, or 2) they could try to kill her and Fang, and either way someone's goose would be cooked.

Angel didn't know what the break in the atmosphere could have done to the survivors' brains, so she had no idea if the remaining humans - and she used the term loosely - were sane or rabid-esque.

Everyone stared at her for a little while longer, trying to make sense of this. Angel glanced to Dylan, where he was standing next to her, and put her metaphorical ear to his mind.

'_They've run off together. Damn Fang. This is his thinking, not Max's. Max wouldn't do something this selfish.'_

Angel stopped listening then, pondering this. Would they have done that? Just … just because they were young and in love? Angel furrowed her brow. No way, Jose; Max knew how much everyone needed her, and Fang knew it too. They knew they had to stay. They had been taken against their will.

"Have you tried contacting Max with your mind, Angel?" Dr. Martinez asked, brows tilting, worried.

"Yeah," Angel looked down a bit, shuffling her bare feet on the floor. "But I can't find her. It's like the airspace outside of our paradise is blocked off," she answered weakly.

Jeb exhaled sharply through his nose. "Damn it," he muttered, "What are we going to do for food?"

Dylan spoke up quickly, "Angel and I can handle it for now," he assured Jeb with a hard expression on his matured face. "But if we're busy getting food, who's going to look for Max?"

"And Fang," Iggy added in helpfully, from where he leant against a table with one arm around Ella's shoulders. Dylan made a face.

Nudge sat on a stool with her knees together and her hands on her bare thighs. She only owned two pairs of trousers now - the shorts she was wearing now, and some tan Capri pants - but she still looked good, so at least there was that. Her mouth pulled to one side.

"We need to leave the cave," she said clearly, her voice carrying.

Everyone turned to look at her, faces showing worry.

"We don't know how we'll react to the atmosphere, Nudge," Jeb said, "It's dangerous. It would be nice to do some tests on the outside world before we start walking out into it." His voice trailed off, and he looked like he really missed seeing grass and sky and trees.

The same look passed over all the other mutant kids' faces.

"Tell us what to do and we'll get samples for you to test," Dylan said suddenly, towering over Jeb with an imposing look on his face. He was older now, taller. Manly. "Whatever it takes to get Max back."

2

This was probably the craziest thing that had ever happened to me. And that, dear friends, is saying something. It had been five years since the world went to hell in a hand basket, and here I was flying across an ocean who-knows-how-wide to a place that may or may not still exist, and why?

Oh, crud, I'm not going to say it. Or even think it. I am a horrible, idiotic mutant bird kid- er, bird woman. Jeez, I can't believe I'm not a kid anymore. Maybe 'Bird Girl' suits me better. I mean, I haven't had the necessary hours of parenting or schooling to call myself an adult, have I? Not that I was going to, of course.

So I guess this is as close to being a woman I was ever going to get. Bird woman. Sounds pretty neat when you put it that way. Except for the whole 'laying-eggs-or-giving-birth' dilemma.

Yes. This is why I am a horrible, stupid, impulsive, selfish mutant bird woman.

"You're doing it again," Fang reminded me from up ahead, and glanced under his wings to look at me.

My face screwed up and I glared at him a little bit. For the past six hours I'd been thinking all these angry thoughts out loud, blaming myself for being an idiot, and blaming him for being too … _Fang. _He'd eventually asked me to stop it, since it was ruining the freedom of flying away from my mom and Jeb and all the others. The flock.

And here came another wave of guilt.

Apparently Fang could read my mind now, and he could tell I was cursing inside my head. "I can't help it," I grunted, pushing my wings down against the hot air.

He drew a breath and slowed up a little bit. "Take it easy. If we don't make it there in the next three seconds, it won't be the end of the world," he flashed a half-smile, and then realized what he'd just said. "… Again," he added.

Why, you ask, were we leaving everyone just because Fang and I happened to have a bundle of mutant joy on the way? Because of the next thing that happened.

A burning lightning bolt of pain shot down from my head and through my spine, down through my legs and arms and wings. It fizzled behind my eyes and in my throat, and tingled in my fingers and toes. My chest clenched in agony, and I gasped in arid air in shock.

Let me tell you, explosions of torture? Probably the _worst _way on earth to find out you're pregnant.

Down I went, as my muscles locked up, and Fang dove down after me. I had no control over a single muscle in my body. I could feel myself shaking as I fell, and I could feel my spine arching this way and that in a flailing attempt to regain some control.

Fang's cool, dry, callused hands suddenly appeared beneath me, and the plummet switched to an easy hover. My body continued to seize as he held me in his arms. My eyes stung with salt, and I was terrified I was going to choke on my own tongue.

I don't know how long it really was, but it felt like eons. When I could finally keep myself still, all my energy slipped out in a breath. I buried my face in Fang's chest, sucking in air and still shaking a little bit from the seizure.

Fang didn't say anything for the longest time, and I could feel his half-lidded eyes watching me, worried. "You're going to be okay," he said slowly, hopefully. "We're going to find the school," he reminded me.

I gripped the fabric of his tattered, outgrown shirt in my fingers. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, after years of nothing but trying to escape the school, Fang and I were now going looking for it. We were going to find our files, and find some way to help the baby and me. Oh, god it's so _weird. _A baby. _My _baby.

A thought struck me. _Our _baby.

Suddenly, pain was the last thing on my mind.

3

The air outside was safe. Humid and warm, but safe. It wasn't too hot for humans (or partial humans), so slowly, ever so slowly; Nudge, Gazzy, Iggy and Total inched toward Dylan and Angel as they went toward the exit of the cave. Total gave a worried whine in his throat.

"I don't like this," he reminded Nudge, as she carried him. "I really, really don't like this."

"It's alright, Total," the Gasman spoke up easily, interlacing his fingers behind his head of badly cut blonde hair. Max had given up on trying to trim it for him, so he had taken a razor blade and haphazardly cut chunks out of it until it looked cool enough for his liking, and was short enough to be functional. "Just think about flying outside again," he grinned.

There was space in the caves and hallways to fly, and one big space that had a safe, air locked window over the top, letting in natural light but keeping out the smells and feels of the sky, where they had kept their wings in practice, but they were finally going out; out into their element.

The glass containment room's doors whooshed open, and Angel waved an almost dismissive acknowledgment to Jeb, where he sat at the computer controls for the safe cave. The flock stepped into the containment room, and the doors whooshed and locked shut behind them.

"Ready, guys?" Angel looked back to them, smiling a little bit.

Iggy grinned and put a hand on both Gazzy's and Nudge's shoulders. "Hell yes," he said emphatically.

The steel door leading to the outside world made a click and a grumble, and with a wave of warmth that shot over the sheltered members of the flock, it crawled upward. It revealed a sky of amazing purple - a red hue from the sun, mixed with the blue of the literally boundless ocean. It was some kind of mix between midday and sunrise.

Iggy lifted one hand up from his side and held his palm out to the sky, hoping to feel a glimpse of what he was faced with. He felt the color, and surprise registered on his face.

"Well, that's not normal," he pointed out dryly, feeling the humid breeze on his fingers.

Gazzy shrugged and unfolded his wings. He wasn't wearing a shirt. He hadn't done that in a little over six months. "We're not normal," he answered, his blue eyes staring up at the sky.

"Actually," Angel said, turning to smile at them, "We are, now."

A look of mixed emotion crossed Nudge's face as Total jumped out of her arms and into the air, little black wings unfurling and flapping happily. She had always wanted to be normal. But she had wanted to be a different normal - the normal that had already been.

That didn't make much sense, she decided, and she flicked her wings out through the slits in her dirt stained t-shirt. Angel and Dylan kicked off into the sky, and Iggy and the Gasman soon followed, with Total flapping after them and shouting indignantly. If not for the purple sky, it would have been just like old times.

Dylan stopped up in the sky, and looked around, just as Nudge took off into the air and felt the old rush of air and wind through her feathers. It did its part to cheer her up.

"Well, it's safe on the ground, and it's safe in the sky," Dylan suddenly stated, "And it's safe in the water, too. So the others can come out and help look for Max."

Angel eyed him for a moment. Wasn't _she _supposed to be the interim leader?

Dylan caught her staring at him, and quickly locked up his mind before she could listen in on it. Some people could do that, she mused glumly. Fang, for one, and Iggy sometimes, too. Nudge was like an open book - so was the Gasman. Jeb was hard to listen to. And Max … Max could go both ways.

Either way, Angel pulled a face and pushed her wings down, flying higher than Dylan. "Okay, everyone - let's do a scan of the area, and then head back down for food," she decided aloud, smiling brightly. "So you guys can get used to our surroundings."

The flock swooped through the hot, humid sky in a large arc.

Angel made sure to keep tabs on Dylan … five years had done little to assure her that he wasn't a loose cannon.

4

If I thought about it, things were really different now. I mean, of course they _would _be, but the weird bit was that I was used to the differences. We all were. Like how midnight was at six o' clock now, according to what clocks were still set to the old world's time schedule, and how the water height would sometimes sweep up the beach for a few days, and then leak back out again.

Fang and I had been flying for hours. It had been morning when we'd left the others, but now it was getting dark. My watch said it was 3pm - about nine-ish by post-apocalyptic standards. The purple sky looked pretty when it got dark. But all that was irrelevant. It was getting dark, and I remembered from before that we needed to stop when it got dark.

If we kept flying through the night we could skew off on accident, or run out of energy. And honestly, I was exhausted. My wings were killing me, and my back hurt from the fits of agony that bolted through me every few hours.

We'd been flying for so long. We should have come to land by now, but the sea levels had risen, and any islands we might have been able to land on were underwater. It's a good thing I'm usually so levelheaded - other wise the mood swings would have been a lot worse.

"I'm tired," I spoke up, making my voice carry against the wind. Five years ago, I'd never had let any of the flock know when I was tired or hungry, but I'd felt like crap for a good few hours and it was time to put it out there.

Fang glanced back at me, a little surprised, then nodded. "Me too," he agreed reluctantly, and I fought off a smirk. "There's nowhere to land. We could hover for a while, if you want. To take a break."

I groaned aloud, stopping in the sky and hovering for a bit. He stopped as well, and I started looking around like crazy for somewhere, anywhere to stop. It was no use, though. Everything was a deep, dark purple.

"There has to be somewhere to land," I insisted irritably.

Fang's face was a mix of apology and distaste. "There isn't."

I wanted to punch him, but I shrugged it off. It was just my exhaustion telling me to hit him, I reasoned with myself. Fang and I hovered and looked at each other for a moment, and then I pulled my wings up and swooped ahead of him again, feeling miserable and looking out like crazy for a place to stop.

Fang followed, and stayed behind me - and I could feel his eyes fixed on me as we flew, like he was watching, in case I suddenly froze and flailed in the air, and started to drop. God, I hated that he had to watch out for me. I had always been able to handle myself, and now I couldn't even fly straight without crumpling every three or four hours.

Back at the safe cave, I could be in my bed right now. Fang wouldn't have to watch my back so much, and my mom would sit with me if I said I felt sick, and there would be food to eat. As the thought crossed my mind, I remembered the food left in my backpack and pulled it off my shoulder, while flying.

With all the things happening today, adrenaline had snuffed out my appetite, but now it was back, and enthusiastic too. I found a warped but delicious apple, some rodent-type jerky, and one of the infinite protein bars that the safe cave was stocked with.

I ate it all inside of two minutes, and just as I looked up, wiping my face with the back of my hand and making sure the backpack was zipped up okay, a flash of white interrupted the endless purple horizon.

I gasped. "Can you see that?" I asked, narrowing my eyes up ahead. It wasn't land … but it was something floating. It looked like something I had seen before.

"It's a boat," Fang said, trying to keep his enthusiasm out of his voice. "We can land," he added, sounding a little bit relieved.

I shot forward as fast as I could, shifting into warp drive. At my fastest, Fang couldn't keep up with me very well, but I knew he wouldn't mind. I had to land, ASAP. I didn't need to worry about seizing up - there was a place to stop up ahead. As I got closer, I could see it better. It wasn't just a boat - it was a yacht.

And there were no people on it. Like it was just waiting for us.

Five years ago, I'd have thought it a trap, but the white coats were all dead, and I was so freaking tired. I pulled up and landed on the yacht's deck without a sound, as I had outgrown and worn out all my shoes a good three years ago. My most trusty pair of jeans were all that remained from the glory days, and they only barely reached my ankles.

I rushed into the yacht - the doors were open - and grabbed the nearest cupboard. I caught Fang landing outside in the corner of my eye. A mountain of tins were stocked up in the cupboard - soup, ravioli, spaghetti-o's, beans … my mouth began to water. I didn't really even care if they were past their use-by date, at this point.

"Tins!" I exclaimed, before I could stop myself. "Food!"

5

The other mutant kids and teenagers came out first, basking in the cooling air surrounding the bunker cave. The ones with wings buzzed and flitted around, laughing and playing in the air. It was dark now, but it was safe outside at night too - in fact, it was nicer at night because it was cooler and drier.

Moss had grown on the tree houses put up for the original flock, and massive, mutated tree roots and branches had crawled up into the sky and through some floorboards in Iggy's tree house, but it was good to be out in the world - whether or not it was primitive and feral.

Dr. Martinez and the other hundred-percenters - the new term for full-humans - had opted to stay in the bunker, not trusting that plain human DNA would be strong enough to withstand the atmosphere outside. There was no radiation, or even extreme heat, but they were playing it safe, and nobody could blame them.

Angel sat on a rock, watching the others flying and running and exercising abilities they had had to keep under control inside the cave. They weren't kids anymore, she mused thoughtfully. None of them, not a single one of them were small. In fact, Angel didn't think a single one of the mutants were younger than eight here.

Iggy was twenty now, like Max and Fang, and Dylan. Nudge was seventeen. Gazzy was thirteen, and Angel herself was twelve.

She looked down a little bit. She didn't feel twelve. She felt a million years old, and at the same time, helpless and confused, like a newborn. Max would have known what to say to cheer her up.

This was supposed to be a happy day, she reminded herself. Everyone was out and living again. But it wasn't.

"Angel," Dylan's voice carried on the night air, and she sensed him walking toward her from the cave.

Angel looked up and saw him approaching with a backpack on his shoulders, flexing his wings. _Oh, no, not you too, _Angel thought sharply to herself. The thought may have carried to Dylan, but he didn't show it.

He stopped and gave her a hard look, and Angel saw the moving shadows of the other flying kids stop moving. Some of them stopped to see what was going on. Angel was tribe leader now, of course.

Dylan drew a breath. "I'm going after Max."

Angel had known this already - whether by using her powers or not, she didn't know - and quickly got up, steeling her expression. "Oh yeah?" she said briskly, "And if she doesn't want to come back? What then?"

Dylan stared at her for a moment. "Then I'll make her come back," he answered reluctantly.

"No way, pal," Gazzy swooped down from the sky, looking grave, "Fang is with her. You can't take them both. I don't know that you could take Max on her _own_."

Dylan's mind raced - it echoed to Angel, who listened and deciphered. He was worried, and angry, and lost. He wanted Max back, and he wanted to kick Fang's teeth in. Dylan had a half-baked idea of how things would go down, too. The most obvious thing in his mind was a want for companionship - someone to join him to chase Max down.

Nudge and Iggy lowered themselves to the ground, beside Angel.

"I'll figure it out," Dylan blurted, face scrunching a little bit, obscuring his male-model-like good looks. "Unless one of you wants to come with," he offered, sounding hopeful.

Dead silence rang out in the open air. A lone campfire sizzled on the sand, and morphed crickets chirped in the forestry.

"You can't go on your own," Iggy shrugged quickly. "Looks like you're stuck here."

Dylan grumbled under his breath. "If nobody will come with me, then I'll fly solo," and he snapped his wings out, so quickly that he knocked air through the small gathering around them, and pushed them down. His feet left the ground, and he flew straight up into the purple night sky.

* * *

**A/N: I haven't done a Maximum Ride fic before. Thoughts? Thanks for reading!**

**Fly on.**


End file.
